1D Mark IV--Show Me 12,800 ISO Sports Images

I'm blown away by the technology. The images at these low light levels are limited more by the quality of the light than the quantity.

Everyone talks about the tracking capability of the IV, but it is also really nice to have a high resolution LCD to chimp the images. When I shoot basketball, it is common to be able to see the veins of bloodshot eyes in the LCD. Needless to say, it is easy to tell if I have the skin tones right when the chimped image is that good.

It's all about the light. In the swimming pics, I set up my strobes and started shooting (strobed direct not bounced due to low ceiling) at ISO 200 and f/5.6.

Then just after the meet started; coaches, teammates, and parents lined up around the edge of the pool--two deep. The ceiling was very low so my strobe light had no chance to make it to the water. It was either shoot high ISO ambient or go home. It is really nice to have the flexibility to deal with extremes in lighting.

The strobed shot has great skin tones but also shadows because the Alien Bees were aimed direct. Ambient pics don't have the shadows but I had to get rid of some noise and some parts of the collar bone area appear a bit yellow because of differences in the white balance of different light bulbs.

I think it is telling that there are no other shooters with examples of sport shots at ISO 12,800. The field/gym/arena/pool that needs 12,800 is an uncommonly dark venue. As a practical matter, when the light gets really low, light qualities, including shadows are often a greater problem than the total amount of light.

Even if 12,800 is not used, the performance at 3,200 or 6,400 is so good, so much improved over the 1D III, that the IV is very desirable for that aspect of performance. For the shooter using an f/4.0 lens, the capability of going an extra stop can be really helpful even though the slower lens will not focus as well.

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